Cableguys - Audio Plugins

We develop state-of-the-art virtual effects as well as the critically acclaimed software synth Curve 2 — "an extremely powerful, flexible synth with a distinctive sound and a stunning, ever-expanding library of presets." (Future Music Magazine, January 2013)

Featured News

Create a new sound and win a lifetime supply of Cableguys plugins!

March 10, 2015

We have boosted Curve 2 CM to version 2.5, including new Sallen-Key filter types, an overhauled UI and many tweaked sounds!

VolumeShaper lets you shape the levels of any audio signal in pinpoint detail.

From multiband sidechain compression effects to extreme gating, from tempo-synced stutter to precise sample-shaping — VolumeShaper provides a wealth of creative musical effects with a visual approach to volume.

The new version 1.4 fixes a bug with its One-Shot mode and MIDI setup screen, and improves its multi-selection of waveform points, as well as compatibility with Cubase 8 and OS X Yosemite.

Beautiful keys and deep chords: Earworm's sounds for Curve 2

February 7, 2015

Earworm's rich and detailed presets are always a huge enrichment to the community. With great love to detail he created many beautiful sounds, including a collection of great key sounds and some fantastic deep chords.

Cableguys: Please tell us shortly how long you are making music and when you have started to design sounds?Earworm: I play guitar (badly — damn these stubby fingers!) since I was a kid and got interested in the weird and wonderful world of sound design about five years ago.

What do you like most about Curve 2 and what makes it unique in your opinion?
The online preset database is a neat idea.
I like to use Curve for pads, stabs, dub effects, wub wub basses, electric pianos, bells, choirs — everything!

Which of your own presets is your favorite?
Not exactly a single preset, but I'm pleased with the trick I discovered for building chorded patches of up to six notes. I turned each oscillator into an interval by drawing and mixing "mutli-duty-cycle" waveforms. Do that with each oscillator and then tune them relatively to one another and it's possible to get some quite complex chords.
Have a look at, for example, "Chord - Deep Ninth" in the preset database.

Do you have any suggestion to users of Curve 2?
Try turning something up to eleven, try extreme settings that ought not to work — sometimes they do!

Experiment with different filters types in parallel, in series, different filters on different oscillators, the same filter in parallel but with opposite modulation, or with high resonance and offset cutoff for formants.

And check Sound on Sound's "Synth Secrets" — it is well worth a read for those interested in an analytical approach to sound design.

Last but not least: Upload your best presets to the database!

Listen to Earworm's presets. Everything is the unchanged sound of Curve, even the drums, without any additional effects:

To get Earworm's new sounds, just open Curve 2, hit the Sync button and you can check them out for yourself!

And watch out for more presets from other sound designers to come, getting the most out of Curve 2's versatility.

Grammy Award winner Chris Shaw, who engineered dozens of releases for Bob Dylan, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Weezer, Cheap Trick and Lou Reed, on how he shapes drums with VolumeShaper:

"Just wanted to let you know how invaluable VolumeShaper is for getting drum sounds in my mixes.
For my rock, alternative and indie mixes, I use the Massey DRT plugin in Pro Tools to generate MIDI notes from my kick and snare tracks and send them to VolumeShaper with its LFO set to 'Fixed 1-Shot'."

So VolumeShaper gets triggered when a kick or snare hits.
"This allows me to use VolumeShaper as a precision noise gate with a programmable envelope.
Finally I'm able to shape drums any way I want."

Chris Shaw adds: "And FilterShaper is one of the most versatile filter plugins I've ever used; two filters — series or parallel, with LFO and envelope follower modulations (and cross-modulation) for days. Way cool."

FilterShaper 3 — Hands-on with Computer Music magazine

April 7, 2014

Watch Computer Music get hands-on with FilterShaper 3 in this in-depth new video!

"FilterShaper 3 is a bonkers frequency-sculpting plugin that can achieve mind-bogglingly intricate modulation while managing to make all of this simple and approachable. .. We stumbled upon awesome sound after awesome sound playing around with percussion loops, shaping background atmospherics and working up evolving pads."
(Computer Music Magazine, CM 202)